They attribute to to "either a fall in general engagement or a reduction in exposure to news by the Facebook algorithm, as the company prioritises interactions with family and friends and tries to limit the impact of ‘fake’ news."

However while the report found that "WhatsApp use for news has almost tripled since 2014 and has overtaken Twitter in importance in many countries" there are "wide variations from 54% in Malaysia (+3) and 48% in Brazil (+2) to 14% in Germany (+2) and just 4% in the United States (+1)."

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Facebook, who also own WhatsApp, have been under pressure to highlight stories from spurious sources to users in order to combat the abundance of fake news on the site which has been blamed in part for the2016 U.S. election result.

Addressing the same issue on a private messaging service would be infinitely more complicated, though may be something the tech company is forced to address should the growth continue.